“We had a lot of international goodwill and support the day after 9/11…”

Really? We had good will in the ‘Islamic world’ after 9/11?"

Yes. The problem was, those of us who only see the world in stark contrasts of black and white, good and evil, couldn't recognize it.

We had an opportunity to rally old adversaries to a common cause; the Russians and the Chinese had similar issues with radical Islamics and we didn't take advantage of that. We could have attacked the problem from many different directions but we blew it.

Really? We had good will in the 'Islamic world' after 9/11?

Will our missions now be about theocide? I don't think you will find many troops who will follow those orders.

"We had a lot of international goodwill and support the day after 9/11. We quickly squandered it. We need to regain it."

This is a "Living in Shangrala" mentality. If we had so much "…international goodwill and support" why did they attack us in the first place?

Your post contradicts itself.

Yea, try & educate Muslims in the Mideast, who believe that ALL Infidels must either be "Converted, Enslaved, or Killed."

MSM might try & project that all Muslims are not "Extremist," but where is THEIR public outcry against Extremist Islam??? No where!

This winning the "Hearts & Minds" crap might sound good on a Special Forces Recruiting poster, but that is about the only place it works. The ONLY thing that gets their attention is a "well planned, coordinated and executed Direct Action mission."

Sure, we can go in & treat Muslims civily, as the Marines did in Al Anbar province, but only after first warning them that "We can be your best friends, or your worst enemies…and having the gonads to back it up"

This is the ONLY thing they understand & it is the only place where some sembalance of order has been effected…but as soon as the Marines pull out & head to Afghanistan to refine their arts, these Tribal Chieftans will revert back to their same old ways.

"There is not a finite group of terrorists out there. We won’t be able to measure success by tallying a body count."

Oh yes there is…it is called the Muslim population that reproduces at an alarmingly rate to spread Islam. Educated in Muslimm schools, brainwashed in Islamic dogma, they are MORE than willing to cut off your head in their misguided religion of slavery.

What are you going to do then…try to reason with them?

This is a war of attrition and Muslims are here for the long run. Look at France, England, etc. Islam is spreading all through Europe & they don't give diddly-squat about others religion or rights…it is like Startrek's "Borg"…assimilate or die!

In order to WIN…we either have to get hard and start taking the war to them on their level (not talking war crimes…just very aggressive & Premptive strikes), or start learning Farsi & reading the Koran…neither of which is on my agenda.

That sounds like the let-God-sort-them-out approach. I disagree. I believe the real mistake we've made in the past 5 years was getting fixed on the idea that we could defeat terrorism solely by military force. There is not a finite group of terrorists out there. We won't be able to measure success by tallying a body count.

This truly is a battle for hearts and minds. We must not only say, but show that we are morally superior to them. We don't do that by admitting we must sink to their level. Terrorist need to maintain some level of legitimacy and popular support. Without that, they have no safe havens, no friends, no family. But every time a village is destroyed because we are told some terrorists were there, we strengthen their cause and give them more popular support.

Military force is a necessary part of the GWoT, but it shouldn't be the only part. We should be doing a better job of informing and educating people who might consider joining or assisting terrorists about the fallacies of the movements.

* Some terrorist operations are financed through the drug trade. Al Qaeda gets a cut of the Afghanistan poppy production.

* Some suicide bombers are not even told they are driving a bomb laden vehicles, often others are drugged or the lives of their families are threatened if they don't do the mission.

* They claim they want to make the world a more egalitarian place, but when they had the opportunity in Afghanistan and spawned the Taliban, they were anything but egalitarian. The Iraqi Sunnis, who are historically secular, realized that soon enough and threw them out.

Most of the worlds Muslims are not fundamentalist. Most reject extremism. But if we, Americans, also make ourselves out to be a threat to them, they will want to hedge and keep the extremists around.

We had a lot of international goodwill and support the day after 9/11. We quickly squandered it. We need to regain it.

This latest attack was, from a professional CT view, quite well planned out & executed by reportedly ONLY 10-Terrorist, with a Body Count of 195 & scores of wounded. But then again, India is a soft target, with weak everything…just what a good terrorist looks for.

Personally, I think the biggest mistake our so-called experts keep making is to underestimate the enemy…assigning sterotypes to them, etc.

As with 9-11, they have proved that "They can Dare To Win" and the reason that they will always be successful in some measure is that we continue to NOT bring ourselves to "Out-terrrist the terrorist." They are willing to DIE for their cause, but our leaders seem hesitant to KILL extensively for our cause.

As long as we continue to fight the GWOT wearing "Kid Gloves" and playing "Whack-a-mole" with the enemy, we will continue to get brave Americans killed because we lack a national resolve to win…the outcome speaks for itself…NOT the B/S press releases.

We are in a Vietnam style situation, with the enemy hiding behind borders and our own press/politicans swaying public opinion that we have already lost, etc. and that we need to immediately turn tail & run. I find it outrageous that we now have a SOFA with Iraq that allows them to prosecute Americans in certain situations, inspect cargo, etc., when we are still fighting a war there. Whoever The F@#k is in charge of that crap needs to be fired?

More on this later after the crew speaks their lot.